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In the fourth inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Milwaukee Braves game at County Stadium on the night of May 29, 1963, Braves coach Dixie Walker grabbed a bat and took the field. The former National League batting champion, retired as a player since 1949, wasn’t making an impromptu comeback at age 52. Rather, he was […]

The Chicago Cubs are the oldest pillar in big-league sports. They have played for the pennant every year since 1874. Originally known as the White Stockings, the club played for two years in the National Association before being a founding member of the National League in 1876. Over time they have suffered more than 10,000 […]

Nap Rucker spent his entire major-league career pitching for Brooklyn in the National League from 1907 to 1916. He compiled 134 wins and 134 losses, but do not assume from Rucker’s .500 record that he was an average pitcher. To the contrary, Rucker is better described as a good pitcher who labored for bad teams. […]

Roy Face, Bobby Richardson, Tony Perez, Robin Yount, and Curtis Granderson were among the star players who wrote their names into the 80-year history of the New-York Penn League. On September 10, 2019, two teams of young men added their own names and then closed the book, as they played what turned out to be […]

Throughout his career, Curt Schilling was known as a big-game starting pitcher who performed well in high-pressure situations. Appearing in four World Series with three teams—winning three titles—he compiled a postseason record of 11-21 with a 2.23 ERA, including a mark of 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA in five games when his team faced elimination. […]

Autumn raindrops pelted Detroit and turned Navin Field into a soggy mess. The Tigers and St. Louis Browns met there on October 2 for the final game of the 1921 season. Only a smattering of fans stopped by to watch the action. “A select party of loyalists braved the clammy, wet elements,” commented the St. […]

He was known for his ability to hit, and he could hit for power. He possessed a strong throwing arm. He was also known for his free spirit and misadventures off and on the field. When he arrived in Washington as a rookie at the raw age of 20, he came with fanfare and a […]

It was a “marvelous exhibition of skill and stamina,” gushed D.C. sportswriter Denman Thompson about the St. Louis Browns’ Dixie Davis’s 19-inning complete-game victory over the Washington Senators.1 Another capital city scribe, Jack Nye, suggested that “Davis appeared to gain strength as the game proceeded,” overcoming six initial shaky frames to settle down and hold […]

Ulysses Simpson Grant “Stoney” McGlynn was a legendary pitcher well before he tossed a complete-game victory on September 20, 1906, in his big-league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals at age 34. For more than a decade in independent, amateur, and semipro leagues, McGlynn had established his reputation as a rubber-armed iron man who routinely […]

David Cone took advantage of an injury to Rick Aguilera to get into the Mets’ starting rotation in 1988. He pitched a shutout in his first start and finished May with a 7-0 record. That left little doubt that New York’s high hopes for the 25-year-old right-hander were warranted. Joseph Durso of the New York […]

Since the All-Star break, the 2017 Chicago Cubs’ offense had been clicking. The Cubs had won 31 of 46 games while leading the majors with 292 runs — including seven games of 10 runs or more. Four times in August they scored at least 15, the first time a Cubs team had done that in […]

Facing a rash of injuries and fading playoff hopes, the Cleveland Indians’ front office needed to make some adjustments before the final month of the 2011 season. And while bringing back the greatest power hitter in franchise history didn’t make a big enough difference by season’s end, the prodigal return of Jim Thome was – […]

In 1913 future Hall of Fame right-hander Walter Johnson earned wins that stopped 18 losing streaks by his Washington Senators. He did it again 10 times in 1914 and 17 times in 1915. By the end of May 1916, he had stopped two more Washington losing streaks; on June 1 he was on the mound […]

The seventh-place Chicago White Sox generated some welcome excitement for 25,000 fans at Comiskey Park on July 9, 1921. The White Sox weren’t doing much against the American League in general, but they had a handle on the New York Yankees, with six wins in nine head-to-head games so far in 1921. Eventually they were […]

After sweeping a six-game road trip at Pittsburgh and St. Louis, the Houston Astros returned to the Astrodome on June 1, 1989, for an 11-game homestand that was full of drama and featured four walk-off wins in a six-game span. They took the first two of a four-game series against Los Angeles – the second […]

The last time the Boston Red Sox had played a game in Buffalo was on July 6, 1917 – and that was an exhibition game. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the team played four exhibition games there, all against local minor-league teams: April 18, 1903: Boston 8, Buffalo 7 April 13, […]

Saturday, July 12, 1975, was probably the high point of Al Hrabosky’s eight-season tenure with the St. Louis Cardinals. After Los Angeles Dodgers manager Walter Alston declined to select Hrabosky for the National League All-Star team, the Cardinals front office responded with a special recognition day for Hrabosky when the Dodgers came to St. Louis […]

The Louisville Colonels didn’t have many bright spots during their major-league-record 26-game losing streak1 in 1889, but Pete Browning’s cycle on June 7 was one of them. Browning’s feat came in Louisville’s 9-7, 11-inning road loss to the Philadelphia Athletics. The Colonels entered the game losers of 13 straight American Association games and followed it […]

As the second decade of the twenty-first century neared its end, Major League Baseball began to look at possible rule changes, many driven by the fact that more and more games were taking three hours or more to complete. MLB signed an agreement with the Atlantic League in the spring of 2019 for the independent […]

The Negro National League (NNL) was early in its second season when the Columbus Buckeyes made their initial trip to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis ABCs were a charter member of the NNL in 1920, along with Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants, Cuban Stars West, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, and St. Louis Giants. The […]

With the 1908 American League championship on the line at South Side Park in Chicago, Tigers manager Hughie Jennings handed the ball to Bill Donovan (17-7). Donovan, sometimes called Smiling Bill, had every reason to smile after the game. His two-hit shutout of the surprisingly error-prone White Sox gave Detroit a 7-0 victory, and their […]

The New York Mets arrived at Wrigley Field in August 1986 with a commanding lead in the National League East. But the Chicago Cubs opened their five-game series with two wins. The second came when pinch-hitter Jerry Mumphrey snapped an eighth-inning tie with a three-run homer on August 5, leading the Cubs to an 8-5 […]

“What a happy world this would be if every one was accomplished as George Herman Ruth.” – Copeland C. Burg, September 29, 19301   On September 20, 1919, at Boston’s Fenway Park, Babe Ruth started on the mound for the Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Staked […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project.   In 1921 Arthur Irwin, at age 63, was in the twilight of a long career in baseball when he was named manager of the Hartford Senators of the Eastern League. He was also a scout for the […]